Charges filed against Mimbres mother of 3-year-old girl who was beaten to death

SILVER CITY — Grant County Sheriff's deputies have arrested Jaclynn Legarda, 27, the mother of the 3-year-old girl who was allegedly beaten to death by Legarda's boyfriend Nick Grijalva, on child abuse and other charges.

Grant County Sheriff's deputies were called to the couple's home in the 3200 block of Highway 35 in Mimbres just after 6 p.m. Feb. 7 in reference to an ambulance call for an unresponsive child who had reportedly fallen from a dirt embankment, reported the Grant County Sheriff's Office in a news release on Monday. Deputies arrived and found the child lifeless, and she was airlifted to an El Paso hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Deputies received a call later that day from medical professionals who told them that the girl was in critical condition and being seen by trauma doctors who said she had various stages of bruising on her body and the injuries were not consistent with a fall. On Saturday, the Sheriff's Office learned the child had died.

Grijalva, 30, was arrested Tuesday and charged with nine felony counts in connection with the beating death 3-year-old Alizandra Jasso, and the abuse of Legarda's other two children, two boys, ages six and eight.

Grant County Sheriff's Deputies picked up Legarda Thursday afternoon. She is being charged with seven felony counts, including three counts of child abuse, in connection with the death of her little girl and the alleged abuse of her two sons at Grijalva's hands.

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According to the criminal complaint, filed Thursday in Silver City Magistrate Court, Legarda is accused of putting all three of her children in a situation that endangered their lives, and she acted intentionally or with reckless disregard for the welfare and safety of her children, the charges state.

In addition to the three third-degree felony counts of child abuse, Legarda is also being charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, both fourth-degree felonies, for allegedly causing or encouraging her sons to lie about what caused Alizandra's injuries; one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, for allegedly removing Alizandra's clothes following the incident and cleaning the bedroom with intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution of conviction of Grijalva; and one count of false reporting, a misdemeanor, for allegedly knowingly providing deputies with a different pair of shoes than the ones Alizandra was wearing on the day of the incident.

Michael Alcorta, Alizandra's biological father, said he hadn't seen his daughter in two years. Alcorta had two children with Legarda, baby Alizandra, and an 8-year-old boy. He said Legarda stopped allowing him to see his little girl two years ago, when she hooked up with Grijalva, who is his cousin. He said at first, Legarda allowed him to see his son, but that only lasted for about three months. Then she stopped all contact.

He said at first he would go to the couple's home in the 3200 block of Highway 35 in the Mimbres, but the gate would be closed and no one would answer the door.

"For the last half a year, I kind of stayed away," he said. "I didn't want to go up there because I didn't know what I would do."

Alcorta said he has five kids all together. Three of them live with him and one of them goes back and forth to her mother's on weekends. He goes to school full time and works on the side.

"I should have done more, I guess," he said.

He said he and his family would "hear stuff" and would call the state Children, Youth and Families Department. He said over the past two years, both his family and Jaclynn's family called CYFD a number of times. He said his mother went to the couple's home three months ago and ended up calling State Police.

Both Legarda and Grijalva were taken into custody, he said. However, there is no record of Legarda being arrested on the New Mexico Courts website.

"I don't understand why they didn't take them away from her when they got arrested," he said.

Grijalva has several criminal charges going back several years.

"I haven't seen him in a long time," Alcorta said. "He did eight years in another state. He barely just got out a few years ago."

"I'm just hoping I get my son right now," he said of the son he had with Legarda.

He said Legarda should be charged in the incident.

"She allowed this to happen," he said. "She had plenty of choices of what to do. My brother and my grandpa live a hundred feet from them. She could have called anyone of us to go pick up them kids."

Legarda is being held at the Grant County Detention Center on $100,000 cash-only bond. She was expected to be arraigned in Silver City Magistrate Court either late Thursday or sometime today.

Grijalva had been held at the Grant County Detention Center on $250,000 cash-only bond, but was transferred to the to Hidalgo County Detention Center on Wednesday for his safety, Detention Center officials said. He was declared indigent during his arraignment on Tuesday and will be assigned a public defender, likely from the Capital Crimes Unit in Albuquerque.